Muslims in Europe are asked to get integrated and move on after this crisis while Islamophobes people in Europe are seen as the perfect people and the experiences who should simply spark a new crisis with no criticism. This shows how Europe is pretending as if it is the continent of freedom and this is a big lie...Thanks IOL anyway for this opportunity..
Answer
Dear Karim: I can assure you that not all of Europe is Islamophobic. My book is about how European Muslims and Muslim across the world reacted to the Danish cartoons and the protests against the,. Many European Muslims actually got quite angry about the involvement of Muslim governments and organizations in the affair.
Name
Fateh Khalele
- Finland
Profession
Engineer
Question
I am quite impressed by your interest and your book's cause, however I do recommend that you do not even think about reprinting the cartoons this will turn your work into a dramatic new crisis instead of its original aim; analyzing the crisis and learn from this lesson..You ought not to fight for that
Answer
Dear Fateh: my book is getting printed as we write, and the controversial illustrations are not in the book.
Actually, I did not plan to reproduce the cartoons as stand-alone images.
I wanted to reproduce the whole page from the newspaper so the reader could see how the cartoons were secondary to the text. Many of the cartoons – about half of them – it is debatable if they even portrayed Muhammad. Others were deeply insulting to Muslims. And some were actually regarded as unacceptably racialist also by non-Muslims. The interesting part is how different people's interpretations of the meaning of the images were.
Name
Hakima
- United States
Profession
Thanks for coming on IOL but?
Question
I am sorry to tell you that insulting Islam and Muslims nowadays has become a key to popularity and congratulations on being renowned from the day that you decided to write this book, don't you think that was part of your aim and you know what professor, I am sure you will be a well-known danish politician in one or two years...Welcome to Wilders' world...A new fitna is now approaching??
Answer
Dear Hakima: I promise you that I have no plans to stand for election and also that my aims are very different from those of Geert Wilders. No movie is forthcoming.
Name
Ewat Yusuf
- Turkey
Profession
Question
I am quite interested to know more about your book's outcome, how did you find Muslims' reaction and the European Gov.'s provocative anti-Islam reaction? What is your conclusion then??
Answer
My book describes the actions and arguments of the actors in the conflict. Elements of genuine misunderstanding and lack of knowledge played a role but for the most part the conflict was driven by political issues and interests.
Motivations ranged from the Danish prime minister’s narrow concern about not alienating voters who are upset about the presence of immigrants and Muslims and the Egyptian government’s desire to push back against American and European complaints about human rights violations.
Muslim associations in Europe, Middle Eastern religious authorities, and Muslim governments and diplomats also had very different intentions and motivations. The OIC was very keen to create an inter-governmental procedure for complaints about Islamophobia, for example. Even the four Danish imams who started the protests in Denmark did not agree on what the objectives were.
Name
Solrena
- Brazil
Profession
Question
I am a Danish Muslims of Arab origin. Please allow me to make my point. I see that Muslims in Europe, especially the 3rd and 4th generations, can tolerate reprinting this cartoons for academic and scholarly purpose while Muslims else where do not have this academic significance in mind...I don't know but I guess the reactions form the east will be tougher ..
Answer
Dear Solrena; I asked many people during my research how they felt about my plan to include the newspaper's page with the cartoons and to discuss the images and their meaning in my book. Most Muslim leaders and scholars said that for sure it would be helpful to have a calm discussion, and their objections to the cartoons were always about the context and the purpose for printing them. A scholarly discussion is different.
A few people said, as did Ahmed Abu Laban, the Danish imam involved in the start of the protests, that his goal was to make Westerners abstain from printing pictures of the Prophet. He nonetheless also gave me a copy of a folder he had written in Arabic -- which reprinted the cartoons as well as other caricatures which the imams had downloaded from the internet but were never printed in any Dansih newspaper.
Name
Osman Loqman
- Austria
Profession
PhD Candidate
Question
Good afternoon, I studied Islamic studies in France and I am quite sure that this portrayal is not allowed in Islam...could you tell us who told you that for "academic" aim it is allowed...And even of only one naive mufti believe in that could you please attend to the calls of billion of Muslims and stop that..
Answer
Dear Osman: I think you are referring to remarks I have made on the BBC regarding a fatwa written by Sheikh Taha Jaber al_Alwani? He is a highly respected professor at Al-Azhar university and a member of the OIC's fiqh council. The fatwa regards a frieze in the US Supreme Court made in the 1930s. It shows the Prophet Muhammad as a law maker and a statesman.
The propriety is tied to the purpose. This is not an act idolatry but a depiction that recognizes the contribution of the Muslim Prophet to global civilization and to Western law.
For sure you do not want us to ignore 15th and 16th century Ottoman and Persian manuscript extolling the beauty of the Prophet?
Name
Salema
- Belgium
Profession
Question
Dear Professor,
Don't you think that including these cartoons again provoke Muslims and don't you think that referring to them literally in your book is more than enough in terms of the academic benefit.
Thanks,
Salema
Answer
Dear Salema: I really do not think that Muslims would have found my discussion objectionable. My hope is that we can move on from the cartoon episode and establish a shared space for discussion? Agree to disagree, I think, is one step towards dialogue. For sure it is difficult to do but I think that this Live Dialogue illustrates that it is possible.
Name
Marwan Katerh
- Germany
Profession
A german Muslim Singer
Question
Salam Jytte,
First please do not take offense at my question, but why didn't you work on a book analyzing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that shook the world several times and still shaking it? Why didn't you have a book on Nazism? Why didn't you asked for including some samples for other portrayed religious symbols that shook the world? Don't you see it weird that in Europe (Germany) insulting a Jew is life-threatening while insulting a Muslim is allowed....Please tell us what is your take on this...
Answer
Dear Marwan, I am a professor and specialize in writing about the politics of the integration of Islam and Muslims in Europe. Scholars write about the things they know about.
My previous book was based upon interviews with 300 Muslim leaders in Western European countries: parliamentarians, city councilors, etc. I am also Danish by origin. When the cartoon debacle broke out it was clear that it was a conflict I was better equipped to research and write about than most people.
Name
Taher
-
Profession
Question
How do you perceive Yale's stance? Do you think this was done out of being keen on Muslims' relations, because of Obama's policy, or what?
Answer
Dear Taher: As you may know Yale University Press decided to seek advice from various unnamed security experts about my book's possible impact. My book had at that point already been subjected to academic review (something all university presses do to check the scholarship) and legal review. The experts did not read my manuscript but most (although not unanimously) recommended that the illustrations should be removed from my book due to a "generic" risk of Muslim violence. My feeling is that such broad statements are unhelpful and serve in no small part to propagate misunderstanding about Muslims' reactions to the cartoons in the first place. We are all -- Muslims and non-Muslims--in a sense held hostage to the extremists.
As I have said in some interviews, we are not at war and such anticipatory redaction from a scholarly book raises large questions about how we can proceed to research and intelligently debate current affairs.
Name
Ahmed
- Germany
Profession
Question
In your study, what was the outcome of your analysis on the Danish Gov.'s stance especially if compared to the Netherlands Gov.'s stance on Fitna movie, since they apologized and got closer to Muslims and worked on their image a lot..
Answer
Dear Ahmed: the Dutch government studied the Danish governmental response to the cartoon protests carefully and decided to do everything the Danish government did not do. The Dutch government took contact with the OIC and diplomats from Muslims countries. It worked with Muslim associations in the Netherlands, whose leaders were by that time dead-tired of such controversy. In the end everybody shrugged when Wilder's movie was launched on-line.
Meanwhile. Wilders' right to free speech was also upheld. The problem is that the whole world over-reacts to anything that can be interpreted as "cartoon"-related. That applies also in the case of the fuss over my book, by the way.
Name
fatima
-
Profession
Question
Can it not be understood that freedom of expression does not give license to hurt others' feelings.
Further, is it so difficult to understand that there is a marked difference between criticism and slander. The Prophet (salal la hu alaihi wasalam) is dearer to most Muslims than their own parents. How can we be expected to not feel hurt when he is insulted.
The idea that freedom of expression carries no responsibility, I feel, has has a large part to play in the breakdown of societies around the world.
We are living in a world where it is perfectly acceptable to ridicule people for being different, for being unfashionable or for being simpleminded.
Women are openly slandered with no thought for how that woman's life will be impacted by such vicious rumor .
The western world thinks it is harmless but it should be noted that Islam imposes a hefty penalty against those who slander women.
Answer
Dear Fatima: freedom of expression is a good thing for everybody. Muslims are free to practice their faith in Europe and here in the United States because of it. Consider how the Danish imams were able to carry on their campaign against Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that published the cartoons, in the absence of freedom of expression? There were people in Denmark who wanted to shut them up because many Danes regarded them as traitors to the country that had provided them with refuge. (Three of the four imams were political refugees from Lebanon and Egypt.) But such efforts were quickly stopped because of civil liberties.
Name
Um Soliman
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
How would be the impact of your book on Danish Muslims integration and did you tackle their level of integration before 2005 and after in your book?
Answer
Dar Um Soliman: I have written about the issue you write in another book, "The Islamic Challenge: Politics and religion in Western Europe." (Paperback 2007). Ironically, everybody agree that things have improved a great deal for Danish Muslims since the episode. There are still many angry voices about Muslims and Islam etc. but the press examined itself and have made great strides to write in a more pluralistic manner about Muslims and hire young journalists of Muslim origin. That goes also for the newspaper t the core of the conflict, Jyllands-Posten.
Name
Yarenh
-
Profession
Srudent at Harvard
Question
SAWB,
Dear esteemed guest..
I wonder would you please let us know based on your investigation into Muslims' reaction to 2005's Danish cartoons, what would be the reactions to this reprinting in your book and how to avoid it after many bridges were built for recovering from this cartoons...
Answer
Dear Yarenh: One of the curious things about the cartoon episode is that some many people got know about them. Some 90% of people in Jordan, Egypt, and France and elsewhere said that they had heard about the cartoons in spring 2006. have we ever had a shared public space like that before? But Muslims and non-Muslims interpreted what they knew about the cartoons in opposite manners. Muslims thought they were another instance of Western arrogance. And "Westerners" thought the affair showed Muslims could not accept "Western values." The dualism is false -- Muslims are also westerners and supporters of free speech. Some Christians were as upset about blasphemy as were Muslims. My hope was that I could persuade readers to look at the conflict in a different light.
Name
Ziadh
- Australia
Profession
Postgraduate Student
Question
Hello Prof.Jytte Klausen,
Though I was not offended by Danish cartoons due to the fact that I don't believe Prophet or His messages in a way that the cartoons were trying to portray, I understand the sentiments of some Muslims. And people have different way to behave to circumstances. That is why we had seen violent protest across the Muslim world and I am sure it would have been repeated if you had published the cartoons. At the same time, some academics are angry at your decision since it compromise academic freedom. How could we, as academics, strike a balance between offending people's sentiments and academic freedom in a situation like this? I am really curious to know how you have made your decision on this issue.
Thanks
Answer
Dear Ziadh: I think you are referring to the fact that I agreed to have the page with the cartoons removed from my book and am going forward with publishing the book with Yale University Press? Many people are writing angry letters to me accusing me of cowardice because I did not take my book to another publisher. The fact is that i am not an activist but a scholar. I never wanted my book to become another chapter in the cartoon saga. Therefore I decided it was in my best interest to get the book out. I hope we can have a global debate about the issue you raise.
Name
Editor
-
Profession
Question
This session has come to an end.
We would like to thank Jytte Klausen for speaking to IslamOnline.net viewers today and we also thank all those who participated in this dialogue.
We apologize for not being able to accommodate any further questions. We request our readers to join us in the upcoming sessions.
